how much lighting does discus required?

[shorjai]

how much lighting does discus required?? 5 to 8 hrs light on everyday???? should i leave it on all day and turn off at night time?? the more lightin they get, DO they get better coloring???

[Peachtree Discus]

i have been told that plants need light - not fish. i only use lighting on breeders once eggs are laid. still, all my tanks get some light from the window.

[Chad Hughes]

They don't have any real lighting needs. If you see where they live in the wild, you would see why. The water is VERY murky. You could probably get away with ambient lighting, but they wouldn't be much fun to look at. I guess it would be more of a personal opinion. I have heard that too much light bothers them. Again, that would make sense for wilds, since they live in murky water.

[susantroy1]

My 55g grow out BB tank used to get about 8-10 hrs of 36w light but, They seemed to "hunker down" a bit so I thought about it and decided to turn it off for a test. All of them are much more active without the light on. spread out throughout the tank as opposed to all in a tight area on one side of the tank. My 140 display tank is planted and I have about 2wpg on that one and I had a 10x10" mat of floating ricca and my discus stayed the majority of time under it So yes I would say they are effected by light as their behavior does indeed change with the amount of light.

All The Best

Troy